The fall portion of the softball season finally got underway for the Lady Bisons who swept a doubleheader from Tennessee State Wednesday night.

They shut down TSU 8-0 in game one and won 4-1 in game two at Draper Diamond.

The Lady Bisons had been scheduled to open the season Saturday in a tournament at Tennessee Tech, but that event was rained out. The Lady Bisons had to work out some travel issues Thursday, but were able to play against the University of Tennessee in Knoxville at 6:30 p.m. after first canceling the game due to rule concerning NCAA travel restrictions in the fall.

“There is an NCAA rule that won’t allow a softball team to travel in the fall if it is going to miss any classes,” said Lady Bisons coach Kristin Peck.

In game one Christen Campbell pitched four innings and Ali Watson threw the final three. They each gave up one hit while combining for the shutout.

Alaina Jacobson started game two and threw the first three innings. Whitney Kihnl was on the mound for the fourth and fifth innings. Christy Grisham threw the sixth and seventh. TSU only had two hits in that game as well.

“We knew none of our pitchers are going to throw a ton of innings right now,” said Peck. “We wanted to use them in different combinations and give them time to gain a little confidence and to give us a chance to see what they can do.

“It was great to have five of our six pitchers out there and to walk away giving up only four hits. It definitely sets a tone for us.”

In game one Caroline Mason and Emily Casey each hit home runs.

The importance of the fall games is to provide Peck and assistant coach Lexi Myers a blueprint for determining what areas need more work.

“It was a great way to open up the fall as far as games,” said Peck. “I think we have a clearer picture of what we need to work on this fall from a fundamental standpoint and a strategy standpoint.

“There are situational things we need to work on. We are going to focus on some of those things through the rest of fall practice and not just deal with fundamental –type stuff.”

This weekend will be a busy one for the Lady Bisons.

Saturday they will host the Lady Bisons Alumni game and the inaugural Purple and Gold game.

The Alumni game will start at 10 a.m. A cookout will follow. The Purple and Gold game will held after the cookout, sometime between 1:30 and 2 p.m.